


Too Much Of A Good Thing

by GracieBirdie



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Peter Hale, Alternate Season/Series 02, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Murder Husbands, Peter's got a crush, Pre-Slash, Sort Of, The Alpha Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-11-04 13:11:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20745623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GracieBirdie/pseuds/GracieBirdie
Summary: Stiles can't just leave Boyd and Erica chained up in a hunter's basement, and if the only person willing to listen to him when he asks for help is a formerly dead psychopath? Well, Stiles supposes he could do worse. But of course nothing in Stiles' life is ever just that simple...





	Too Much Of A Good Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Yet another installment of my unofficial series called "how many different ways can I rewrite the last episode of season 2?"
> 
> unfortunately necessary disclaimer: there are going to be spelling/grammatical errors in this. I know this, no I'm not going to fix it now that I've already posted. No I don't want a beta. Anyone who still decides to point these things out to me will get a mean and/or bitchy response because I warned you. Don't like it don't read it.

“Thanks for giving her a ride, dick breath.” Jackson said, as Lydia wrapped the blanket she’d taken from the back seat of Stiles’ jeep around his very naked self. He would have almost sounded genuine, if not for the death glare he was sending Stiles over Lydia’s shoulder.

Stiles rolled his eyes and muttered “How creative.” before pointedly ignoring him and looking at Lydia, about to ask her if she would be willing to drive them back to Stiles’ house because his hands were shaking so badly he didn’t think he’d be able to change gears and his headache to the point the light from the jeep’s headlights were making him wince, only to see her ushering Jackson out of the warehouse.

He stared after them, completely baffled as to why they were going to walk away when Stiles could just as easily give them a ride. 

“Seriously?” he asked, knowing they were too far away for Lydia to hear but not for Mr. Suddenly-a-werewolf-for-some-reason. Jackson glared at him from over his shoulder and deliberately pulled Lydia closer to him.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Stiles asked, glaring after them. “You’d really rather walk around town in just a blanket then get in my car with me?” Jackson didn’t look back and Lydia didn’t seem to hear him.

Stiles rolled his eyes and turned his attention away from jealous idiots and to Derek. “Hey Derek!” he called, knowing the alpha would want to know where Boyd and Erica were.

Derek glared at him, looking the most furious Stiles had ever seen. He reared back in surprise and didn’t try to get his attention again. He honestly had no idea why Derek would be so angry at him but after the way his night had gone he had no desire to piss off an already angry alpha. Isaac stepped over to him and started to usher him out of the warehouse and Stiles figured that was probably for the best. Isaac would more than likely be able to calm Derek down better than Stiles.

Besides he didn’t need Derek’s help anyway. He could just ask Scott. Scott would be all over wanting to help Boyd and Erica. He looked over at Scott only to see him staring sad and moony eyed at Allison, who was staring sad and moony eyed back. Argent took a hold of Allison and pulled her away and Scott instantly started to follow her.

“Scott?” Stiles said, trying to catch his attention but knowing it was pointless. Scott had his ‘desperate to see Allison’ look on his face and Stiles knew there was nothing he could say or do to get Scott to listen to him until after Scott had gotten his Allison fix.

“I’ll talk to you later, okay Stiles?” Scott asked, not even looking back at him.

“No, it’s not okay!” Stiles said, suddenly furious on Boyd and Erica’s behalf. “Scott! This is important.”

Scott and both Argents turned to stare at him and Stiles realized it was probably not a good idea to mount a rescue mission when the person who owned the house you wanted to break into was standing right in front of you holding a gun. Stiles didn’t say anything else and after a moment Scott gave him a mildly frustrated look and said, “Stiles I have import things I have to do too. You can talk to me about Lydia tomorrow.”

Genuine hurt went through Stiles at the implication Scott thought the only important thing in his life was Lydia. He pointedly turned away from Scott and the two hunters to inspect the front of his jeep. The fact it was still running was probably a good sign at least.

“Stiles.”

Stiles gasped out loud and jumped away from Peter Hale, who had not only snuck right up on Stiles but was also back from the dead.

“Are you fucking serious?” Stiles asked, grasping at his pounding chest and staring at Peter in amazed horror. “What the fuck, I thought you were dead.”

Peter smirked and shrugged. “Nothing lasts forever.” He said flippantly.

Stiles glared at him. “Some things are supposed to.” He muttered.

Peter just turned his attention to his hands. He was using a pristine white handkerchief to wipe black sludge from his hand and claws.

Stiles made a noise of disgust and asked “Do I want to know what that is?”

“Depends,” Peter said lowly. “Did Gerard do that to your pretty face?”

Stiles winced and took a step back. “What’s it matter to you what happened to my face?” he asked, crossing his arms and glaring defensively.

Peter hummed and carefully folded the handkerchief before slipping it into his pocket. “Well, you certainly won’t have to worry about him touching you again.”

Stiles shook his head, not the least bit surprised that Peter had come back from the dead to kill another Argent.

He thought he should be more terrified than relieved but he couldn’t bring himself to care that Peter had just murdered someone again. Stiles was glad Gerard was dead and he knew he should feel bad about that but he didn’t. He was still too worried about Boyd and Erica to feel much else.

He glanced at Peter. “You want to help me with something?” he asked, torn between hoping Peter would say yes and worrying about what he would do if Peter said no.

Peter looked interested and asked “What’s in it for me?”

Stiles rolled his eyes at the predictable question. “You might get to kill another hunter or two, if we hurry.”

Peter grinned at him and walked around the jeep to open the driver’s door. “Let’s go then.” He said before sliding behind the wheel.

Stiles glared at his forwardness but was actually a little relieved he didn’t have to drive with his headache. He settled into the passenger seat and grumbled, “Why are you driving when you don’t even know where we’re going?”

Peter gave him a disapproving look as he carefully backed out of the hole the jeep had made. “You don’t look like you’re much up for driving at the moment, if the way you’re holding onto your stomach is anything to go off of.”

“Yeah well…” Stiles said, shivering just slightly at the reminder of his injuries. “You're one to talk Mr Walking Dead.”

Peter snorted and sent Stiles an unimpressed look. “If that's the best you can do you’re obviously feeling worse than you look. And you look like shit so that's saying something.”

“Fuck off asshole.” Stiles spat. He was furious that he has to deal with a psychopath. He would take Derek's borderline physical abuse over Peter's verbal assaults if he could. But of course it was just his (and Boyd and Erica's) shitty luck that the only one who would actually listen to Stiles was Peter fucking Hale, murderous bastard though he may be.

“So we're going to the Argents house are we?” Peter asked, cool and calm like he wasn't blowing Stiles’ mind. He wondered how obvious it was what Stiles needed help with.

Stiles gave Peter a blank look and asked “Why would you say that?”

Peter smirked. “Gerard obviously had something to do with your face looking the way it does and you didn't want to tell the other two Argents what you needed Scott's help with. But you wouldn't have asked Scott to help you kill his girlfriend so that means you want something from inside the Argent’s house and it's important enough that you won't care if I get my hands dirty to get it.”

Stiles was so used to being the one who gave monologues about people's motives he didn't know how to react in the face of someone else being obviously smart.

“Erica and Boyd were still in the basement.” He said softly, ashamed even though he knew he shouldn't be giving Peter ammunition to use against him.

He saw Peter tense out of the corner of his eye and turned to frown at him.

“Are you telling me,” Peter started, voice sounding so dangerous that Stiles flinched away from him instinctually. “that Derek's two little runaway betas didn't actually run away but were in fact taken by hunters and when you tried to tell their alpha that he deliberately ignored you.”

Stiles blinked at Peter, bemused. “Well Derek didn't exactly let me finish my sentence before he walked out so...not technically.”

Peter made a humming sound that came out sounding more like a growl. “No one asked you what happened to your face.”

Stiles opened his mouth to say that Scott had before remembering that no, he actually hadn't. He snapped his mouth closed and turned to glare out the window.

It didn't fucking matter that no one asked about his face, everyone obviously had a whole hell of a lot more important things going on with them than he did.

He almost jumped out of his skin when he felt a heavy hand against the back of his neck. “Don't touch me!” He yelled, shoving Peter's hand off of him.

He pressed himself hard against the passenger door and gave Peter a glare that felt too shaky to actually have any heat to it.

Peter's hand hung in the air between them for a very long moment before he finally dropped it back down onto the gear shift.

“Alright.” He said softly. “I won't.”

Stiles knew Peter’s tone should have terrified him, filled him with piss-his-pants fear but instead they soothed him. Because one of two things were going to happen: either Peter would keep his word or he wouldn’t. If he didn’t keep it then Stiles would know he couldn’t be trusted even more than he already couldn’t be trusted. If he did keep it then he wouldn’t be touching Stiles, in which case Stiles got exactly what he wanted. It wouldn’t matter if Peter had kept his word just to try and manipulate Stiles into thinking that Peter was the nice one in the face of everyone else who knew about the supernatural being an asshole to him.

Stiles relaxed back into his seat and set Peter an unimpressed look. “I’m holding you to that.” he said threateningly, although he knew it didn’t really have anything on Peter’s threats. Or even Scott’s for that matter. It was more the thought that counted anyway.

Peter nodded decisively and rolled his shoulders to forces himself into a more relaxed posture, mirroring Stiles. Probably to try and put Stiles even more at ease.

Stiles looked back out the passenger window and ignored Peter for the rest of the drive.

~*~

They parked a block away from the Argent’s house and snuck in through the back gate, Peter leading the way with his stupid werewolf senses.

To his credit he didn’t make any pointed jabs about how Stiles could have been able to handle the whole mess on his own if he had just accepted Peter’s offer. Stiles was well aware that some parts of his life would have been improved if he had accepted but the resentment he would have felt at both himself and Peter wouldn’t have been worth it.

Sometimes he thought that if Derek had asked him he might have said yes. He wondered how Peter would have reacted to coming back to life and finding that Stiles had taken someone else up on the offer. Whether he would have been delighted to see Stiles as a werewolf or jealous that someone else had bitten him. Maybe Stiles would ask him that question one day. But probably not because Peter would more than likely just say something tailor made to fuck with him.

They paused at the back door and Peter leaned closer to Stiles to whisper, “There are two people upstairs that are not Argents.”

Stiles nodded and whispered back “We should hurry then.”

Peter didn’t say anything but Stiles suspected he was rolling his eyes at Stiles pointing out the obvious. Stiles was used to dealing with people that needed the obvious pointed out to them, he would rather have Peter think he was an idiot than have them be on different pages.

Peter gave the sliding door a hard yank and there was the sharp sound of breaking plastic.

Stiles winced and Peter flatly said “Oops.”

Stiles smacked his hand against Peter’s arm as he shoved past him and into the house. The light coming from the kitchen was enough for Stiles to pick his way to the garage door. He slipped inside just as he heard footsteps on the stairs.

He slid his hand along the wall until he found the switch for the overhead light, not at all caring about anyone seeing it. It wasn’t like Chris was going to call the police on a break-in when there was going to be two dead hunters in his living room.

Once the light was on he walked over to the basement door and pushed it open. He stared down into the dark for a long moment before physically shaking himself and forcing air into his lungs.

He left the door open as he quickly made his way down the stairs. At the bottom he again felt along the wall for the light. He flicked it on and then swore loudly at the empty room.

Boyd and Erica were gone. The relative lack of blood told him that unless they had been electrocuted to death they might still be alive.

Well that was just fucking perfect. The cherry on his shit sundae. Definitely how he had wanted his night to end.

What the hell was he supposed to do now, just forget about them? Pretend that they had never existed in the first place? He couldn't do that, not after he had left them there with a psychopath even worse than Peter. At least Peter had had a relatively clear victimology. Hunters just killed who ever the hell they wanted to, it didn't seem to matter if they were werewolves or humans who were in the know.

He gave the basement one last cursory glance before making his way back up the stairs to the garage.

At the top of the stairs he paused, trying to see if he could hear Peter or the other hunters. He could hear the soft sound of a faucet running but he didn't actually want to know what the hell Peter had been up to, especially if it required clean up.

He glanced around the garage with interest. Since he was there he might as well look around, see if he could find anything useful.

This _ was _ a hunter’s house after all, it was bound to have _ something _ interesting in it.

Keeping in mind that Chris and Allison could be back at any point Stiles got to work snooping.

Stiles was actually surprised that they weren't home yet. No doubt Scott was holding them up, foisting his sad puppy dog eyes onto the both of them until they gave up trying to make him leave them alone.

He opened and closed cupboard doors and drawers as he got to them, completely avoiding the guns he came across. Chris might let Stiles taking wolfsbane slide but he would never accept Stiles stealing one of his guns. And Stiles wanted to avoid having to deal with the Argent's as much as he possibly could.

Not that breaking into their house, stealing their shit and being at least an accomplice to murdering two of their lackeys was a good way to start a habit of avoidance.

He opened one cupboard and came face to face with a ziplock bag of black powder. He almost ignored it, it could have very easily been gunpowder, but something about it nagged at his senses. He casually pulled the bag out and set it down on the countertop before moving on in his search. He smirked when he hit the jackpot of dried wolfsbane. He grabbed two of the ziplocks, each bag potentially holding a different strain of the poison, and dropped them next to his bag of probably not gunpowder.

He had just found a pair of heavy duty latex gloves when the inside garage door opened. He glanced up, not actually worried that it was going to be anyone other than Peter.

And of course it was Peter, using a washcloth to wipe blood off of his face.

“What happened to your granny handkerchief?” Stiles asked sarcastically.

Peter gave him a truly self-satisfied grin, showing off the blood he still had staining his teeth. “It got a little too dirty for my taste.”

Stiles gave him a disgusted look and turned to pick up the bags he'd left on the counter. He slipped the wolfsbane and gloves into the kangaroo pouch in the front of the hoodie he'd pulled on before leaving the Jeep to go play burglar.

He walked over to Peter, holding up the not gunpowder bag. “Is this what I think it is?” He asked.

Peter raised both eyebrows and gave the bag a look of pure disdain. “That would depend entirely on what you think it is.”

Stiles smirked happily and put the bag in his pocket. “I'll take your facial expression as a yes.”

He turned slightly and swept his arm out, taking in the whole garage. “Well, have at it.” he said, impatient to get out of the house before the Argents got home and he had to explain to them what the hell he was doing. He supposed if worse came to worse he could just throw Peter under the bus, it wasn’t like Chris would be all that opposed to helping Peter along to the after life. For the second time.

Peter gave Stiles an unimpressed look but stepped past Stiles into the garage anyway.

He walked around the space, looked down the basement stairs, and gave disinterested glances at the overabundance of guns. By the time he had circled back to Stiles he was looking vaguely annoyed.

Stiles raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“They left out the back door.” Peter said casually.

Stiles flailed his hands and said through clenched teeth “We came in through the back door! Why didn't you say that sooner?”

Peter smirked at him. “Don’t complain so much, we both got something out of this.”

Stiles bared his teeth at him in anger and turned on his heel, pulling the inside garage door open and walking back into the living room.

Only to stop dead in his tracts because of the huge ass bloody spiral on the living room floor.

Stiles stared at it, ignoring the slightly less than intact bodies littered around, and said without inflection “What the fuck?”

Peter gave Stiles a look that was creepily innocent looking. “I had to make sure my point got across.”

Stiles stared at Peter, incredulous. “What the hell kind of point are you trying to make?”

Peter shifted closer, even more danger pouring off of him than before, which was saying something considering the almost literal bloodbath he’d made around the room. He almost seemed to loom over Stiles, even though their height was similar.

“Someone should make sure that the Argent’s know _ someone _won’t stand for them going after pack members.” Peter said, far too serious for Stiles’ liking.

Stiles frowned harder at him. “Taunting them isn’t going to make them leave us alone. It’ll probably just piss them off.”

Peter shrugged. “Now they know it won’t be accepted and if they do it again they’ll have no one to blame but themselves when they end up dead for it.”

Stiles rubbed his hand over his face, not liking the idea that Chris and Allison could use it as an excuse to just kill the rest of the wolves in town and be done with Beacon Hills all together. He wanted to tell Peter that if they did decide to retaliate against the pack Peter was the one who would have to take care of it but he knew Peter would just enjoy that and use it as premistion do whatever he wanted.

Stiles was not liking the way the night was going, Boyd and Erica maybe being alive notwithstanding. He had used the possibility of Peter getting to kill hunters as bait to get Peter to help him but now that he was actually seeing the finished product he was starting to really get pissed at Scott for taking off when he had needed his help.

If Scott had just pulled his head out of his ass and thought about someone other than Allison for three seconds Stiles wouldn’t be having to deal with Peter going unnecessarily over-the-top and potentially causing more problems than Stiles wanted to deal with.

Stiles decided that if he was going to be pissed at Scott he might as well be pissed at Derek too. Like Peter had pointed out in the car Derek really wasn’t handling his new status well. He thought it was pretty sad that Derek was really only doing marginally better at the alpha bullshit than Peter had done. Especially considering that if Derek had come with Stiles instead they probably wouldn’t be dealing with the mess Peter had just made.

Stiles carefully skirted the big bloody spiral in the middle of the room to make his way out the backdoor and into the backyard. He glared around in the dark, waiting for Peter to hurry up and follow the scent tail he had apparently found and decided not to mention.

Stiles heard a rustling beside him and started to turn towards it, frowning at the thought of something or someone being in the yard with him, when someone loudly whispered “Stiles what the fuck?”

Stiles flailed back and clamped his hand over his mouth to stop himself screaming too loudly. He definitely didn’t want anyone to call the police when he was so close to not one but two dead bodies.

He bumped up against Peter, who was growling softly. Stiles took a long deep breath to calm himself back down and elbowed Peter in the stomach to try and get him to stop being more creepy than he had to be.

Isaac cautiously stepped into the light coming from the back porch. He was frowning deeply and shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. “What the hell’s going on?”

Stiles gave Isaac an unimpressed look. “Hi Isaac, what are you doing here?”

He felt Peter shift behind him and jumped away in surprise, momentarily forgetting that Peter was behind him. He sent him a glare over his shoulder and Peter just smirked at him.

“What am I doing?” Isaac asked incredulously. “What are _ you _doing?”

“You shouldn’t answer and question with a question.” Peter snarked.

Isaac sent Peter a death glare, pointing into the house and hissing “What the fuck?”

Stiles rubbed his face again, his anxiety rising the longer he was stuck at the house. “Peter just make yourself useful.”

Peter gave him an unimpressed look and Stiles quickly added “Please.” through gritted teeth.

Peter smiled sweetly at him. “All you have to do is ask me nicely Stiles.” He turned away and made his way out of the yard.

Stiles glared at his retreating back and turned to Isaac, taking pity on his dumb face and wanting to keep the only witness close, just incase. “You can come with us to find Boyd and Erica if you want to.”

Isaac stared at him for a long moment, taking in the bruises on his face, before nodding slowly. “Does this make me an accomplice to murder?”

Stiles gave Isaac a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Our lives have taken a strange and dramatic turn and we are all slowly losing our minds.”

Isaac didn’t look comforted but he let Stiles lead him away from the house.

~*~

Stiles and Isaac followed Peter through the cult-a-sac and into the woods. Stiles didn’t particularly like the idea of running around the woods in the middle of the night with one confirmed murdered and one fairly new beta with the potential to go semi-psychotic. The only thing that was really stopping him from fully freaking out was the two bags of wolfsbane and the bag of mountain ash in his pocket.

While they walked Isaac badgered Stiles into telling him what had happened with Gerard in the basement and in return Isaac told Stiles what had happened with Gerard in the warehouse. The anger Stiles had been feeling towards Scott intensified while the anger he felt towards Derek lessened some.

He was in the middle of a seething rant about what an idiot Scott was where Derek was concerned when a chorus of howls cut him off. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he gripped his bag of mountain ash tightly.

He sent Peter a worried look. “What was that?” he asked, uncertainty.

Next to him Isaac was practically vibrating. “That didn’t sound like Boyd or Erica...” he said nervously.

Peter stepped closer to Stiles, frowning deeply. “Don’t wander off.” he said absently.

Stiles huffed in annoyance at Peter but when he started to walk again Stiles kept one step behind him, Isaac keeping pace with Stiles and sending worried looks at the trees around them.

After a few minutes of walking Peter stopped so abruptly Stiles bumped into his back.

“What is it?” he whispered, glancing around the small clearing they had stopped in.

Peter was visibly tense but when he spoke he sounded almost excited. “You two stay here.” he said quietly, slipping off into the trees before Stiles could protest.

Stiles looked at Isaac while he pulled the bag of mountain ash out of his pocket, opening it and pulling out a small handful. “What can you hear?” he asked softly.

He started to walk in a small circle around Isaac, ash trickling out of his hand as he went.

“There are a lot of people up ahead.” Isaac whispered. “I think Erica and Boyd are with them but I can’t tell for sure.”

Stiles nodded absently as he stopped walking, leaving a small gap so Isaac could get out of the circle if he needed to.

There was a loud roar and Isaac and Stiles both jumped.

“They’re definitely there, I’m going to go help, you stay here.” Isaac said, losing any pretense of staying quiet.

Stiles glared at Isaac and said, “You can go get Boyd and Erica and bring them to me, let Peter deal with whatever the hell the problem is.”

Isaac looked at Stiles for a long moment before nodding decisively. He took off and Stiles almost immediately regretted letting himself be left alone in the dark with some unknown threat running around.

He shifted nervously from foot to foot, hand uncomfortably tight around the small bit of ash he was holding. He really hoped that it wouldn’t all just stick to his palm when he opened his hand.

He heard something big crash through the underbrush and tensed in anticipation. Momentary relief rushed through him at the sight of Boyd, Erica, and Isaac running towards him.

The relief disappeared a moment later when he saw a creature that was considerably uglier than Peter had looked when he’d been an alpha. The glowing red eyes only served to enhance Stiles’ fear of it.

Stiles felt himself starting to panic, hands starting to shake. He froze for a long moment before he locked eyes with a visibly panicking Isaac and the world suddenly snapped back into motion.

“Behind me!” he yelled, quickly backing away from the monster, the three betas scrambling to him and then past him.

It took a considerable amount of concentration to get his hand over the opening of the mountain ash circle, avoid the swiping claws of the monstrous alpha, and make sure it was actually inside the circle before he could open his hand and close the circle.

He dropped the mountain ash and scrambled backwards, panting as he watched the alpha slam into an invisible wall.

For a moment he allowed himself to relax, but then the monster was roaring so loudly it felt like the floor of the forest was shaking.

He quickly scrambled for the bag of wolfsbane and one of the gloves. “Cover your faces!” he yelled over his shoulder while he pulled the glove on, none of his fingers actually inside the fingers of the glove and his grip on the wolfsbane shaky at best. He turned his face away from the powdered poison, took a deep breath before turning back and blowing the powder out of his palm and towards the monster alpha’s face.

The alpha wailed and clawed at it’s eyes before it started to shudder and blood gurgle out of its mouth and nose. It collapsed to the ground and Stiles stared at it in horror. He had no idea what he was going to do if he’d killed two alphas in three months. Probably have a mental breakdown. That sounded like a reasonable reaction.

He shakily pulled the glove off of his hand and dropped it into the bag of wolfsbane, closing the bag and shoving it into his pocket.

“Is it dead?” he asked shakily.

“No, but it definitely doesn’t sound good.” Isaac said, still struggling to catch his breath. “There’s still the problem of the other three alphas running around somewhere. You should really make another circle. Like right now.” Isaac said, starting to visibly shake, either with fear or adrenaline.

Stiles blanched at the thought of there being three more alphas. One was bad enough but he had no idea how he was supposed to handle three at a time. Especially considering he’d really only caught the first one out of pure luck.

He heard a crash in the distance and turned to look over the betas. Boyd and Erica looked tramazied and Isaac looked terrified. He let himself think for a moment before nodding.

“Okay you three come stand over here.” he said, ushering the betas over to the center of the clearing, just to the side of were the dying alpha was still trapped.

He pulled out the bag of ash and quickly made another circle but this time he didn’t hesitate to close the circle on them.

There was a chorus of protests behind him that he ignored, slipping out of the clearing and behind a tree to wait.

“He’s using us as bait?” Boyd asked, sounding incredulous.

“Well at least _ we’ll _ be fine in here, unlike _ some _people.” Isaac said in clear annoyance.

“I’m sure he’s got some sort of plan...” Erica said hesitantly.

Stiles had to admit it felt pretty nice that at least one of them had faith in him. Not that he actually had a plan, just a vague idea of what he might do if any more alphas showed up.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” Someone asked from out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of Stiles.

He heard Boyd and Erica curse in unison and Isaac shrieked in surprise.

“Three little wolves gift wrapped for me, how sweet.” Stiles fought back an eye roll, he had no interest in any more overdramatic alpha werewolves, dealing with the Hales was more than enough.

“Who put you in this little birdcage hm? Was it the same little magic weaver who poisoned my twins?” the alpha’s voice was a strange mix of interested and furious.

Stiles had no idea what the fuck the alpha meant by calling the huge dead monstrous werewolf ‘twins’. He would have to ask one of the beta’s what the hell he was talking about later, if they all survived that was.

“I might be blind but I’m not deaf. I can hear your heartbeat. You sound like a terrified bunny-rabbit, little magic weaver.” Stiles could hear the alpha moving closer to where he was hiding.

Stiles sighed softly and walked back into the clearing. He took in the tall werewolf wearing sunglasses at night standing right in front of the mountain ash circle holding Boyd, Erica, and Isaac, who were all making panicked gestures at Stiles, probably trying to tell him to run or something.

“Alright, you got me.” he said, trying to buy time, either for Peter to show back up and murder this pretentious dick-head or for Stiles and/or one of the betas to come up with a great idea for getting them all out of this situation alive and with all their limbs attached. Stiles was just hoping that that wasn’t too big of a request to make after the shit show his whole night had been.

“I have to wonder if you defeated my twins through luck or talent.” the alpha said, walking slowly around the circle holding the, now very dead, monster. Stiles was kind of mad with himself that he’d decided against stealing of the Argent’s guns. He definitely could have gotten in at least one shot as the alpha very deliberately turned his back on Stiles.

Stiles had known this guy for three seconds and he could already tell he was an overconfident narcissist and Stiles had a sinking suspicion that he was going to start monologueing.

“I have to admit I’m impressed that you were able to both contain and kill two of my alphas. But I suppose it was a bit easier when they’re sharing the same body...” he trailed off in obvious thought, putting his hand on his chin and everything.

“That’s certainly a gross thought.” Stiles muttered as he watched the betas push uselessly against the mountain ash border holding them back.

He curled his hands in his kangaroo pouch and ran through his options. He could see if he could pull off another trick like he had with the, apparently conjoined twins, monster alpha but this douchebag was probably expecting Stiles to do something like that.

“I can smell the wolfsbane and mountain ash on you little magic weaver. I suggest you toss them away before you get any ideas that might make me angry.” the alpha said, sociopathic smile on his face.

Stiles gave deep sigh and carefully pulled out the bags of wolfsbane and mountain ash from his pocket before casually tossing the bags into the treeline.

“Good boy.” the alpha purred and Stiles fought back a gag of disgust, causing the alpha to chuckle at him.

“So now what?” Stiles asked, faining casual.

“Why don’t we introduce each other? I’ll start. You may call me Alpha Deucalion.” the alpha, Deucalion whatever the hell kind of name that was, put one hand on his chest and swept out his other arm in a tiny little bow.

Stiles rolled his eyes to hard it hurt. But he knew he should play along. There was a chance that Peter could still be alive and his declaration on the Argent house Stiles was about 78% sure that he would be back to check on Stiles. As creepy as the thought was it did help calm Stiles’ nerves slightly.

“I’m Stiles.” He said almost physically stopping himself from saying something that might get him killed.

“Stiles…” Deucalion said, rolling his name around and causing chills to run up Stiles’ spin.

This guy was giving off truly terrifying vibes and Stiles was strangely growing more afraid of him then he had ever been of Peter in his human shape.

That did not bode well for Stiles’ continued survival.

He looked at the betas over Deucalion's shoulder. The three of them were standing stalk still and staring at Stiles intently. He watched Boyd silently gesture at the mountain ash line before pointing at the dead monster alphas.

“It’s not nice to talk behind someone’s back.” Deucalion said in quiet amusement.

Stiles twitched in surprise and quickly reevaluated Deucalion and the situation. The guy might be blind but he was still a werewolf and an alpha at that. Stiles had no fucking idea how he was going to get out of this situation.

"So what brings you do our neck of the woods?" Stiles asked, trying to aim for casual and hoping that his first instinct about Deucalion liking the sound of his own voice was right.

Deucalion smirked at him. "We heard there was a new Hale alpha."

Stiles hummed, not sure what he should say to that. He didn't know what Deucalion would want with either Derek or Peter and it was entirely possible that Deucalion could just be fishing for information.

"So...what does that have to do with any of us?" Stiles asked neutrally.

"I'm sure I'll find a use for some new little betas and I'll definitely find something to do with a magic weaver."

Stiles' stomach dropped.

Suddenly he turned away from Stiles, his head cocked to the side. A woman stumbled through the trees towards them, blood covering her face and chest with her hands clutching at her stomach.

"Kali." Deucalion said, he actually sounded a little upset. He walked closer to her, cupped her chin his hand for a moment before sliding it down and dug his claws into her throat.

Stiles was shocked and caught the look of betrayal on her face before she fell forward onto the ground.

Deucalion's shoulders started to shake and he through his head back with a roar.

In a panic Stiles ran to the mountain ash circle and jumped over it to stand with the betas. They caught him before he call fall on his face and the four of them huddled together in fear.

Deucalion turned to look at them and pulled off his sunglasses to flash deep red eyes at them.

"Fuck." Erica whispered harshly. "Fuck fuck fuck. What the _ fuck _is he?"

Deucalion's wolf face looked terrible. It didn't look anything like the betas or Derek or even Peter. Not that Stiles had ever seen Peter's wolf face but he had seen Peter's full wolf shape and that had been absolutely terrifying. Deucalion managed to still be human shaped and terrifying.

"I am the Demon Wolf." Deucalion said, voice low and threatening.

He stalked to the edge of the circle, raised his hands and started to push against the invisible wall in front of him.

"He... can't....can he?" Isaac stuttered out shakily.

"Stiles.... now would be a good time to have a back-up plan." Boyd said, eyes wide with obvious fear.

Stiles pulled the bag of wolfsbane out of his pocket and Deucalion went still.

He sneered and said "If you blow that in my face you'll poison your little friends too."

"Fuck that!" Erica said, shoving Stiles in front of her.

He glanced over his shoulder and watched her pull a scarf out of her pocket and rip it into three parts. She handed one piece to Boyd and Isaac and wrapped the third around her nose and mouth before pulling her hood over her head and turning around to press up as close to the line as she could get. Boyd and Isaac immediately followed her example.

Deucalion roared again, practically shaking the ground and making Stiles feel sick with terror.

His hands shook so badly he was afraid he'd spill the bag of wolfsbane. He raised his arms and turned his face into his elbow to cover his nose and mouth. He pulled the ziplock open, reached inside for a halful of the wolfsbane and threw it into Deucatlion's face just as the mountain ash circle broke with a loud POP.

Deucalion started to wheeze and Stiles looked up in time to watch him run off into the woods.

"Holy shit." he said in amazement. "I didn't think that would actually work."

He zipped the bag back up and wiped his hand off onto this sweater. He turned to grin at the betas.

"I can't believe he thought we'd fall for that whole 'but it'll hurt your friends' bullshit." Erica said with a laugh as she pulled the scarf off her face.

"How long do you think we should wait to see if he comes back." Boyd asked, looking pensive and worried.

"I have no idea." Stiles said with a shrug.

"What do you think happened to Peter?" Isaac asked, looking over at the dead Kali.

"Who?" Boyd and Erica asked in unison.

"Obviously Peter got a good chunk out of her." Stiles said pensively. "How many did guys did you see with Deucalion?"

"There was only one other guy." Boyd said. "Is Peter the guy who showed up out of nowhere?"

"Yeah he likes to do that." Stiles said, looking around the woods as he waited for Peter to pop up out of the shadows.

They stood quietly for a few more minutes before Stiles asked "Do any of you hear anything?"

"No, I think we're good." Erica said, while Boyd and Isaac nodded in agreement.

Stiles sighed softly in relief, stepped away from the betas, and took one last disgusted look at the alpha monster before turning to look at the betas.

"So should we-"

The three of them suddenly yelled and lunged for him but he was already being tackled to the ground, a deep snarling coming from whatever had jumped him.

He struggled to turn around and pull himself away at the same time, knowing that he had to get out of biting distance as quickly as possible.

He managed to roll over and shoved his hand into his front pocket, not at all to feel the bag had broken and spilled wolfsbane everywhere.

He ground the handful into the face of the werewolf on top of him, catching sight of red eyes and a huge open mouth.

The alpha snarled before he started to cough and wheeze on the mouthful of wolfsbane he'd gotten. Stiles shoved hard at his shoulders and then, suddenly someone was pulling him off and Stiles felt the hot spray of blood on his face.

He froze, watching Peter shove the strange alpha out of his way and stair down at Stiles. His blue eyes slowly changed to red as Stiles stared up at him.

Peter crouched down slowly moved his face closer and closer to Stiles' own. Stiles held stock still, having no idea what Peter was doing.

He leaned even closer still and then, he breathed deeply, his nose a hair away from Stiles' cheek.

"Peter-" he tried to lean away from him but Peter just followed him, breathing heavy against his skin. "Peter I swear to go I will shove this wolfsbane into your mouth too."

Peter held completely still for a moment before he leaned away and stood up. He offered Stiles' hand but Stiles ignored it and jumped to his feet. He scrubbed at his face with the sleeve of his hoodie before Peter pulled out a handkerchief and tried to hand it to him.

Stiles shoved his hand away in disgust. "I'd rather have werewolf blood on me over Gerard goo."

Peter smirked at him and held the cloth up to show it was perfectly clean. Stiles glared at him but took it and gave his face a dry scrub.

"Uh...What the fuck is going on?" Erica asked? She, Boyd, and Isaac were all staring at them like they were crazy.

"Peter's an alpha again." Stiles said flatly. He glared Peter down threateningly. "And he'd better not go off the rails again because I just killed two alphas in one night, and brings my total count of alpha's I've helped be killed to four."

Peter grinned at him. "I'm very impressed. And I promise to be good Stiles."

Stiles didn't believe him for a second.

"I still don't know who you are." Boyd said with a frown.

Peter gave an exaggerated hurt look. "My dear nephew didn't tell you about me at all?"

The betas shared a look Stiles didn't understand before Isaac shrugged and said, "I know he looks like a creep and just acted like a creep but he did help save you two and Stiles tonight."

Boyd and Erica nodded at each other before looking at Stiles.

"Is this guy too _ questionable _?" Erica asked. Obviously she expected Stiles to know what she meant by questionable but Peter had literally just murdered someone right in front of them. Well, that person had been trying to kill Stiles so maybe she wasn’t sure how to take that.

He looked Peter over for a second before giving them his own shrug. "Well he has murdered a bunch of people, and that's just tonight..."

Peter had the nerve to pout at Stiles. "They were all bad people at least."

Stiles stared him down. "Yeah, _ tonight _."

Peter dipped his head in acknowledgement.

"Plus last time you were an alpha you bit Scott and attached Lydia." Stiles hesitated before bringing up his own kidnapping "And scared the shit out of me."

Peter tried to look contriet but couldn't pull it off very well. Or maybe he wasn't trying to pull it off very well.

"Would you like me to atone for my past mistakes?" he asked, seeming genuinely interested in what Stiles had to say.

Which was odd. Sure Peter had been the only one who seemed to notice something had happened to him and had volunteered to help him find Erica and Boyd, had even gone after not one but two alphas which had given the betas time to get away.

"I'm not really the person you should be saying that to." Stiles said firmly, making up his mind.

Peter looked mutinous for a moment before he said, sounding slightly angry, "I'm not going to bend to Scott's every whim."

Stiles frowned at him in confusion. "Who said you had to do that?"

Peter deflated like Stiles had popped him like a balloon. He smirked at Stiles, visically more relaxed. "So it'll be fine if I apology and promise not to mess with him or Lydia again?"

Stiles' eyes narrowed. "And Derek. And not just promise not to mess with them. Actually follow through with it."

Peter grinned at him. "It sounds like you're going to have to keep an eye on me to make sure I keep my promise than Stiles."

Stiles glared but had to admit it was kind of amusing to watch Peter try and convince him to give him the time of day. "Only if you accept that I don't want to be a werewolf."

Peter was full on beaming at him. "Oh Stiles, judging by how well you handled both yourself and these three baby wolves turning you would actually be to my detriment."

Stiles rolled his eyes hard enough to hurt but started walking when Peter gestured for him to go first.

The betas trailed after them and he glanced over his shoulder to make sure they were doing alright.

"So ah, what happens now?" Erica asked hesitantly.

Peter sent her an amused glance and said "I'm going to walk the four of you to Stiles' jeep and then all four of you are going back to his house."

"Hey!" Stiles said in annoyance. "You don't get to start bossing me around."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "You really want to be by yourself with a crazy alpha running around? Especially after you killed two of his packmates and poisoned him?"

"Well where are _ you _going?" Stiles asked, blanching when he realized how that sounded.

Peter smirked at him. "I'm going to clean up the bodies and then hunt down Deucalion."

"Oh obviously." Stiles huffed. But he did feel better at the thought they weren't just going to let Deucalion just get away after the way he had just killed Kali without barely a thought. Just remembering the way he'd touched her face made Stiles feel sick.

"Do alphas usually clean up after a ah fight?" Boyd asked, clearly interested in what Peter had to say.

"Usually there would be a member of the pack that was in charge of cleaning up and getting rid of any evidence of a fight. But considering I was the one who used to do that it only makes since I would do it now. After all I have much more experience than any of you." Peter explained.

Boyd looked fascinated while Isaac and Erica just looked interested, like they were a little starved for attention. Stiles wondered how much Derek was actually teaching them about packs and alphas. He hoped it wasn't just how to survive hunters.

They took the long way back to the jeep to avoid having to cross through people's backyards or anywhere near the Argent house.

Once they reached the jeep Peter gave the betas a stern look. "Any of you know how to drive a stick?"

All three look mildly upset as they shook their heads no.

Peter looked Stiles over with a frown.

Stiles glared at him. "I'm fine to drive. It's not that far."

Peter didn't look convinced at all but he did have three bodies to bury and a demon wolf to track down so Stiles figured he didn't really have time to argue with him.

"You three keep an eye on him." he ordered and Stiles huffed in annoyance.

But it felt...strangely nice to have someone looking out for him, even if it was Peter.

The betas got serious looks on their face and nodded like they really were planning to look out for him.

Stiles had no idea what he was supposed to do with that.

Before that night he and the betas hadn't gotten along at all. In fact, their relationship could be considered antagonistic at best and downright murderous at worst.

But he, Boyd, and Erica had shared a very traumatic experience that Stiles was not thinking about. He wasn't sure why Isaac would be so willing to go along with what Peter said but Stiles could tell none of them were going to listen to what he had to say on the matter.

He climbed into the driver's seat and pointedly waiting for the betas to climb in too. Peter waited for them to drive off and Stiles watched him run back into the woods in the rear view mirror.

It hurts more to drive than he was expecting and real exhaustion was starting to set in as the shock of the night started to wear off.

He had to drive under the speed limit to make sure the jeep stayed inside the lines.

Finally he pulled up in front of his house.

He sighed deeply and eyed the betas. "You guys don't actually have to come in if you don't want to. Or if you have to get home because someone is missing you." he added the second part with a pointed glare at Erica.

For a moment she looked torn but then got a determined look on her face. "After I saw what happened tonight I wouldn't feel good leaving you alone." she paused, pointed towards the dark house and added "Plus your dad isn't even home."

Stiles sighed and glanced at the house guiltily, hoping that his dad hadn't gotten called to any of the crime scenes Stiles had been at that night.

"Fine." he said, frustrated but also strangely relieved that he wouldn't be alone. Peter had been right, knowing that Deucalion was running around really was starting to freak Stiles out.

He got out of the jeep and the betas all followed him into the house and then into the kitchen to make midnight or rather three am sandwiches.

After they'd all eaten Stiles scrounge around for clothes that would fit everyone before it was decided that Erica and Isaac could just wear some of Stiles' shorts and t-shirts and Boyd could borrow a pair of sweatpants from his dad.

Stiles put fresh sheets, blankets, and spare pillows on the pullout couch while the betas were taking turns getting ready for bed.

Once they were all settled together downstairs Stiles took a long hot shower and tried to process what had happened to him that night.

It had certainly been a lot to take in.

He'd helped win the Big Game, gotten kidnapped by hunters, got beaten up by a geriatric, got roped into helping his crush get back together with her supernatural creature boyfriend, crashed his jeep through a wall, failed to get anyone to help him when he actually needed their help, found out Peter was not only alive again but still going around killing people, broke into the same house he'd been beaten up in, stolen from hunters, saw disgusting dead bodies, killed an alpha that was somehow two alphas at one time, watched a murder, poisoned a demon wolf, and watched _ another _murder.

He'd really had a busy night. At least his dad had said he was proud of him. Not that Stiles thought he still would be if he knew how many people Stiles had killed, or how many he'd had a hand in killing.

And he had no idea what Peter was playing at.

Peter was so goddamn confusing to him. It was like he was a completely different person than he had been before he died. He was obviously more in control of himself. When it came to his spontaneous actions.

He could have bitten Stiles but he hadn't even tried.

It was odd. Just as odd as when he'd _ asked _Stiles if he wanted to be a werewolf. Stiles didn't even think him asking could be blamed on him having learned his lesson with Scott, not right after he'd bitten Lydia without asking.

Stiles had no idea what he was going to do with Peter. He wasn't even sure why he thought Peter was his problem in the first place.

Maybe it had been the way he'd so easily agreed to help him find Boyd and Erica.

Either way Stiles didn't know what he was doing but he'd figure something out if Peter went back to trying to fuck Scott over or he tried to hurt Lydia.

If he didn't do either of those things Stiles... still wouldn't know what to do with him.

Stiles went to bed without a plan, just the general thought that he might let Peter do what he wanted if he made promises and actually kept them.

~*~

Stiles woke up from a light doze when his mattress dipped. He blinked fuzzily up at whoever it was leaning over him for a moment before he suddenly remembered there was a crazy alpha running around that he'd managed to piss off.

He flailed hard, punched the stranger in the face, and rolled up to press his back against the wall in a panic.

"I should have been expecting that, that's my bad." Peter said, muffled from where he was on the ground.

Stiles relaxed instantly.

"You fuckhead. Don't sneak up on me like that!" he hissed.

Peter's head popped up over the side of the bed and he sent Stiles a apoligetic look. "I didn't actually mean to wake you up."

"That's _ worse _." Stiles said with a glare.

Peter pouted at him before he pulled himself up to sit on the bed. "Those baby betas could sleep through a home invasion. Maybe it wasn't my best idea to send them with you." he shook his head in disappointment.

Stiles looked at him in surprise for a moment before he shrugged. "Well, it's not like I was screaming or anything."

Peter didn't look impressed. "Your heartbeat went crazy. That should have been enough to wake them up."

Stiles just shrugged again. "It's been a hard night for everybody." he muttered awkwardly.

He eyed Peter, taking in how his clothes were caked in blood and mud. "Did you find Deucalion?" he asked, knowing that Peter would have already taken care of the bodies by the mud.

Peter nodded, a self-satisfied look on his face. "He was still alive so it was really more of a mercy killing more than anything."

Stiles wasn't at all convinced about that but he did feel instantly better knowing he was dead and not going to come back to get revenge on him.

"How do you know who he was anyway?" Stiles asked, dying to know now that they Peter had time to answer him and Stiles wasn't falling asleep on his feet.

"We've met before. Before his little '_ accident _'." Peter said, which wasn't really much of an esplantion.

Stiles stared at him and waited for Peter to say more.

"Gerard blinded him. And then something happened with his pack and he ended up killing the ones that were left. I'd heard rumors that he was taking in other alphas, ones that had killed their own packs." Peter had a look a disgust on his face and Stiles felt sick again.

"He said he'd heard that there was a new Hale alpha." he murmured and Peter turned to look at him thoughtfully.

"If he was trying to catch Boyd and Erica he might have been planning on making Derek kill them to join his pack."

Stiles winced. "That's awful."

Peter nodded before he looked down at himself for a moment.

"I should get cleaned up." he said absently.

"Do you have somewhere to clean up?" Stiles asked, wondering how long Peter had been back before he'd gotten around to telling anyone he was alive again.

"Of course I do." he said with a smirk. He looked at Stiles' closed bedroom door for a moment before he asked "Are you okay with me leaving you alone with them?"

Stiles rolled his eyes. "You didn't ask me last night, I don't see why you would care now."

Peter huffed. "That was before I knew what sound sleepers they were."

Stiles shook his head and waved him away. "Go."

Peter sighed but stood up and started to make his way over to the window.

"Peter, wait." Stiles said in a rush.

Peter turned to look at him in interest.

"I just... thanks, for helping me find Boyd and Erica." Stiles said awkwardly.

Peter gave him a soft little smile and said "Any time Stiles."

He paused again before he reached into his pocket and pulled out the bag of mountain ash Stiles had thrown in the woods. He tossed at the bed and smirked at him. "Almost forgot this."

He slipped out the window before Stiles could react and he flopped back down onto his bed. He was awake now so he might as well figure out what he was going to tell his dad about the three strange teenagers sleeping in the living room.

He winced when he suddenly remembered his dad had once arrested Isaac on suspicion of murder.

He almost wished Peter would come back so that his no-longer-in-a-coma status could distract his dad.

~*~

Stiles woke up and still felt a little out of it but considerably better than he had felt the night before. Although he was considerably sorer.

He took more than the recommended amount of pain meds and went downstairs to scrounge for some breakfast only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight of the Boyd, Erica, and Isaac sitting awkwardly on the folded up couch.

All three of them jumped to their feet and Erica held out a large over-sugary coffee.

"I wasn't sure what you would want so I just got what I get." she said, trying to act casually but Stiles could tell she was poised to run if she had to.

"Thanks..." he said quietly as he took the drink. He gestured at the kitchen and asked "Have you guys eaten?"

They shared a glance and all shrugged in unison so Stiles went into the kitchen and let them decide if they were going to follow him.

He pulled out breakfast foods before he frowned at the thought that his dad might be home.

"Does anyone know if my dad got home last night?" he asked.

There was a chorus of negative answers and he sighed in mild relief. He might be able to get them out of the house before his dad even saw them.

Erica and Isaac settled down at the kitchen table out of Stiles' way while Boyd stepped up next to him to help assemble fried egg and sausage sandwiches. Not the most healthy breakfast but Stiles was starving and his dad wasn't there to send his food longing looks.

"So after we eat I could take you guys home." he winced and looked at Isaac. "Or Derek's?"

"Thank you Stiles that's very nice of you." Erica said in a rush with a slightly uncomfortable smile.

"It's no problem." Stiles said awkwardly.

They finished up and Stiles run back upstairs to get dressed while Boyd and Erica got their things together and Isaac loaded up the dishwasher.

Stiles tried to ignore how weird it was to have someone else doing something he would normally be doing.

They were out the door less than ten minutes later and Stiles had just sat down in the jeep when his cell phone started vibrating.

He frowned but pulled it out and checked the caller. It wasn't a number he recognized but it was local and he always picked up local numbers just in case it was someone calling about his dad.

"Hello?"

"Hi Stiles, would you mind doing me a little favor?" Peter asked and Stiles rolled his eyes.

"How'd you even get my number creeper?" he asked in exasperation.

"My oh so helpful nephew gave it to me." Peter purred in a way that suggested Derek hadn't actually willingly given Stiles' number out.

Stiles sighed deeply but if Peter was calling him for help after everything that had happened the night before it was probably important.

"Where are you?"

"Don't go agreeing to favors without asking what they are first Stiles, I thought you knew better than that." Peter said, no doubt trying to sound reproachful but Stiles had gotten told off by the best so it had no effect on him.

"I didn't say I would do anything, I just asked where you were." Stiles said in amusement.

Peter huffed at him but gave him an address on the other side of town.

"I'll be there in a bit."

"Thank you Stiles." Peter said and Stiles thought he actually sounded sincere.

He looked at the betas and raised his eyebrows in question.

Erica frowned at him but shrugged. "He kind of gives me the creeps so I wouldn't mind going with you to make sure he doesn't like, bite you or anything."

Boyd and Isaac both nodded in agreement and Isaac added "That address is pretty close to the train station Derek and I are staying in."

Stiles went still. "You two.... are staying in a train station?"

Isaac flushed in embarrassment. "It's better than the group home they tried to put me in."

Stiles winced and let it go. He didn't agree at all but it wasn't his place to order Isaac around or even question his choices.

He looked at Boyd to make sure he was also onboard with that was happening. Boyd nodded at him but asked "On the way could you explain who the hell Peter even is?"

Stiles let out a huge breath and said "That's kind of a long story but I can give you the footnotes."

~*~

The place Peter wanted to meet was actually an old abandoned bank.

He met them at an open side door and raised his eyebrows at the betas. Stiles just gave him a 'what can you do' gesture which made Peter roll his eyes.

They followed him into the bank and down a back hallway until they turned a corner and saw Derek and Scott both standing in front of the open vault door.

Stiles was shocked by how strongly he felt hurt at the sight of both of them. Especially after the shit show the night before had turned into.

If either of them had listened to him in the warehouse after Jackson's Beast impression Peter wouldn't be an alpha again and probably a couple people would still be alive.

Peter sent him a slightly alarmed look before frowning at Scott and Derek with narrowed eyes. Stiles took long deep breaths to try and convince himself to calm down before anyone else noticed.

Not that Derek and Scott were paying him any attention at all. They were staring into the fault.

Peter came up to them and snarked "If you want this taken care of maybe you two should get out of Stiles' way."

They both turned to frown at him and Stiles gave them an awkward wave.

He stepped up to the vault entrance as they moved out of the way and saw a girl maybe his age standing inside. She was glaring hard at him and looking pretty furious.

He waved just as awkwardly at her before noticing the line of mountain ash in front of the doorway.

That was interesting. If she had something to do with the alphas from the night before they must have had a human working with them to be able to lay the line. At least Stiles was pretty sure that werewolves couldn't actually touch mountain ash the same way they couldn't touch wolfsbane.

"So you want me to..." he trailed off and pointed at the line.

"If you wouldn't mind." Peter said with a charming smile.

Stiles huffed at him but couched down and waved his hand over like he had before. The line broke instantly and he stepped out of the way so the girl could come out.

She and Derek awkwardly hovered in front of each other for a minute before Peter took pity on them and said "Everyone, this is Cora Hale, my niece."

Stiles' eyebrows shot up but he didn't question it. He could see the family resemblance between her and Derek.

"I thought everyone else died in the fire." Scott said eloquently.

Stiles groaned and face palmed.

"Jesus fucking Christ Scott have you never heard of tact?" Boyd asked, looking horrified.

Both Erica and Isaac looked equally angry.

Peter and Derek were watching Cora and not paying any attention to Scott but Cora looked furious.

"Who are you exactly?" She asked, staring Scott down.

Scott puffed up at the implication she was questioning him.

"Anyway," Sties said loudly before Scott could shove his foot farther into his mouth. "Some people are probably being looked for and I for one do not want an angry sheriff getting his kid accused of kidnapping or something."

Erica lightly punched him in the arm and he yelped in surprise because for some reason didn't actually hurt. He blinked at her baffled that she had pulled her punch.

She flushed in embarrassment and said "No but seriously we should probably let a family reunion happen or whatever."

Boyd was looking between Peter, Cora, and Derek before he asked "How'd you even find her?"

Peter smirked at him. "I knew they had to be staying somewhere so I looked around until I found this place."

Stiles suspected that there was more to the story but he was pretty sure Peter wasn't interested in telling Derek or Scott. He waved in the direction of the door they had come in through and the four of them all turned to leave when Scott yelled for Stiles to wait.

He paused and turned to look at Scott in question.

Scott smiled at him. "I was just wondering what you needed help with last night."

Stiles stared at him for several long seconds before scoffing. "It's a little too late Scott. I needed your help last night not today."

Scott pouted at him. "Well maybe we could get some pizza or something and talk about it?"

Erica stepped up in front of Stiles to stare Scott down. "Are you fucking for real right now?" she hissed.

Scott looked baffled but instantly went on the defensive. "What's _ your _problem?"

"My _ problem _ is that we could have used _ your help _ last night but you were too busy chasing after Allison Goddamn Argent to care." Erica spat in fury.

Scott's eyes flashed and he stared to growl at Erica so Stiles decided to interrupt and get between them before a brawl could brake out.

"Erica leave it. Scott and Derek can regret their decisions last night if Peter goes off the rails again."

Derek, Cora, and Scott all spoke at the same time.

"What the hell are you talking about now Stiles?" Derek asked, his normal frown somehow more frowny.

"Again?" Cora asked, raising her eyebrows and looking back and forth between Derek and Peter.

"What the fuck did you do?" To Stiles' shock Scott's anger wasn't directed at Peter but at _ Stiles _. He started to advance on Stiles growling and flashing his eyes.

Stiles quickly back away from him, baffled over where that reaction had come from.

Before Scott could get even a few steps Peter and the betas were all standing in front of Stiles, growling at Scott.

Stiles felt his breath catch, shocked that all four of them would react that way for him.

"I'd calm down if I were you Scott." Peter said evenly.

Scott reared back from him and actually roared at him in anger so Stiles was pretty sure Peter had flashed his new red eyes.

Derek caught and held onto Scott when he tried to jump at Peter. "What the hell is going on?" Derek yelled, looking way out of his depth.

Peter huffed. "While you were off brooding Stiles, Isaac, and I were looking for Boyd and Erica who had been caught by Argent."

Derek looked at Boyd and Erica in shock but didn't seem to know what to say.

"We found them, obviously, but so did the alpha pack."

"The _ what _?" Scott asked eloquently.

"So you killed one of them?" Cora asked in interest.

Peter smirked at her. "I killed two of them. The other three had unfortunate run ins with wolfsbane."

Stiles stared at Peter, shocked he would phrase it like that. Stiles had absolutely no doubt if Peter had said Stiles had killed anyone Scott would have completely lost it. The way he said it could be played off as an accident.

"No doubt this is a great lesson for the both of you. Next time Stiles needs your help you'll give it to him." Peter said and there was _something_ in his voice. It made a shiver run up Stiles' spine and cause both Derek and Scott's eyes to flash at Peter.

They were both seething but strangely Cora's shoulders seemed to relax a little bit.

Stiles cleared his throat awkwardly. "Anyway."

Peter deliberately turned away from Derek and Scott. He smiled at Stiles and said "Thank you again."

Stiles had no idea how he was supposed to take that so he just nodded and turned away from all them, mind reeling a little.

He was sure Peter was just messing with him to mess with Derek and Scott but that didn't make any of it any less weird.

Boyd, Isaac, and Erica all followed him back to his jeep.

The four of them just sat in the jeep for a minute until Isaac said "Well that was weird..."

Boyd, Erica, and Stiles all absently agreed before Stiles said "Okay let's get everybody home."

~*~

On Monday, Scott gave Stiles the cold shoulder and refused to say anything to Stiles and that was fine with him. He might still be bitter about Scott not asking how he'd gotten such a bruised up face, for picking Allison over him.

Strangely enough Boyd, Isaac, and Erica had decided that Stiles was suddenly cool because all three of them were talking to him and sitting with him.

He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do with that but he figured after sharing a traumatic experience it made sense they'd want to stick together.

Stiles couldn't say he minded very much. It was... nice to not worry that he wouldn't have anyone to talk to at lunch while Scott was mad at him.

"So!" Erica said brightly while they were all sitting around a table in the cafeteria. "There's two alphas running around town now."

Stiles raised his eyebrows at her. "So I've noticed." he said dryly.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Are we going to do anything about this? Aren't we worried about how Peter's doing?"

Stiles thought about that.

Considering the last time Peter had been an alpha he'd bit Scott and Lydia without consent, killed several people, and Stiles did kind of want to avoid anything like that happening again.

He looked at Boyd and Isaac. "Anyone have any ideas of what we could do?"

The betas exchanged glances.

Hesitantly Boyd said "Well, it took all of us and Derek more than two months to deal with the kanima and it's master _and_ Gerard Argent and we didn't even end up solving anything in the end..." he paused with a grimace.

Isaac jumped in for him. "Uh, yeah. It was Peter's idea to have Lydia talk to Jackson and you said that he was the one who dealt with Gerard?" he paused to look at Stiles, who nodded, before he continued "And then between him and Stiles _five_ alphas died before they could kill any of us."

Stiles wasn't sure if it was fair to compare Derek and Peter liked that when Derek had been running around half blind while Peter had been attacked head on.

"_And_," Erica said. "Peter doesn't have any betas and Derek says that's not good, that an alpha needs betas to stay sane."

Stiles frowned in confusion. "So what, you guys want to split your time between them?"

All three got sower looks on their faces.

"Ah, no." Erica said. "Boyd and I already jumped ship." She turned to look at Isaac pointedly.

Isaac shifted a little, obviously uncomfortable. "I... might split my time between them."

Which would make a good test of how Peter acted as an alpha. If he had a problem with that then Isaac for sure wouldn't want to be in his pack while it would make Boyd and Erica uncomfortable enough they might want to leave too.

Scott would never agree and if he was forced to choose between either Peter and Derek he probably wouldn't choose either of them but there was still Jackson running around.

Stiles wasn't sure who Jackson would pick, but considering how much of an asshole he was he'd probably not pick either the same as Scott.

Cora was pretty easy to place at least. He had no doubt that she would not be okay with Peter killing Laura and considering the Hale's had barely any family she'd pick Derek over Peter.

That left Derek with three betas only because the combination of Jackson and Scott made a whole beta, no doubt that they would go to Derek with their problems over Peter and that might be enough for Derek in the end.

Which mean that Stiles would have to go to Peter's pack to fill in any gaps Isaac would leave when he was with Derek.

He didn't... exactly mind that.

Derek had managed to hurt his feels just as much as Scott had while Peter hadn't been... awful.

The thing about Peter that stuck out the most to Stiles was that he had told him not to touch him and while Peter had definitely gotten close to touch he hadn't. He hoped that was a good sign.

He sighed and nodded. "We'll let him give it a test run and see what happens."

The betas all relaxed a little, like they hadn't been expecting Stiles to agree with them. Stiles thought that was odd but maybe they thought it would be easier to talk to Peter if Stiles was there and they were just glad to have him as a buffer.

"When do you guys want to do this?" he asked.

Isaac chewed on his lip before he said "Maybe we should ask him when he's free, just in case..."

Stiles looked at Boyd and Erica who both nodded their agreement, so he pulled out his phone to text Peter.

_Hey the triples want to talk when are you free?_

Stiles didn't even have time to put his phone back in his pocket before Peter had texted him back.

_After school? You can come see my new apartment ;)_

Stiles stared at the text.

Had Peter Hale really sent him a winky emoji?

What had his life come to that a formally dead alpha werewolf was texting him emojis?

"Did he say no?" Erica asked with a frown.

"Huh?" Stiles blinked at her. "Oh, no, he said to come over after school."

"What's with that face than?" Boyd asked.

Stiles handed over his phone so the betas could read the text.

"Okay..." Erica said, drawing the word out. "He's still pinging on the creep-o meter...."

"Well, you don't _have_ to talk to him if you don't want to." Stiles said awkwardly.

Erica cocked her head in thought for a minute before she finally said "If he does stuff like this with me I'm out and if you tell him to knock it off and he doesn't we're all out. Sound good?" she looked pointedly at Stiles.

He frowned for a moment before he nodded in agreement. Peter's default setting seemed to be kind of creepy uncle but he hadn't been too bad when he'd checked up on Stiles after a big fight with the alpha pack so there might be hope for him yet.

She handed his phone back to him and he saw Peter had texted him an address in the _fancy_ part of Beacon Hills. Stiles would say he was surprised except he wasn't at all.

~*~

After school they all piled into Stiles' jeep and drove over to the apartment complex that was the building at the address. He parked in the lot and hopped out to go stand in front of the double front doors.

Stiles pressed the buzzer for 14B , which judging by the numbers listed was actually on the thirteenth floor. He also noticed that there seemed to be only one other apartment on the fourteenth floor unlike all the other floors which had four apartments each.

The front door clicked and Erica swung it open for them all to step through.

The lobby was nice if kind of generic. Nice enough to be well maintained but not so nice as to need a front desk or doorman. Which, considering Peter's life, was probably a good thing.

They piled into the elevator and rode it up to the top floor and then piled out into the hallway. Almost directly to their right was the door for apartment 14A so they walked down the hall to find the door for apartment 14B which was right next to the door leading to the stairwell. Stiles suspected the stairwell would lead out to the back of the building which Peter would no doubt take full advantage of.

The whole place looked very strategically placed.

Stiles knocked on Peter's apartment door and they only had to wait a few seconds for Peter to open it and let them in with one of his amused expressions.

Surprisingly the apartment was completely bare and smelled faintly like paint.

"How long have you been back for?" Stiles asked with his eyebrows raised.

Peter pouted at him. "Two weeks. You're not impressed by how quickly I found an apartment?"

Stiles sent him an amused look. "Have you seen where Derek's staying? I'm very impressed but don't let it go to your head."

Peter smirked at him. "Considering I don't have any furniture, I hope you're all okay sitting on the floor."

They all just sort of flopped down in what would probably be the living room section of the open concept room.

Peter looked amused and gracefully sat down facing them. He raised his eyebrow and asked "So what do I owe for this surprising get together?"

The betas all looked pointedly at Stiles, which he had been expecting but it still felt odd to have them think of him as their voice in the matter.

"You're an alpha without a pack right now." Stiles said bluntly.

Peter looked vaguely amused, what Stiles was starting to think of as his default expression. "So you planning on doing something about that?" Peter asked, looking at Stiles and completely ignoring the betas.

Stiles swallowed hard at the stare. "You know Boyd and Erica left Derek's pack."

Peter didn't even blink. "I do."

Stiles cleared his throat, slightly uncomfortable with the way Peter kept staring him down. "They- I mean we were wondering if you would like to have them as your betas."

Peter looked pleased, which made Stiles instantly feel better. Peter was obviously interested.

"I have to know if you're planning on joining a pack Stiles."

That was a surprise. Sure, Peter had once seemed like he wanted to give Stiles the bite and Stiles had been just talking about joining his pack but it was different hearing Peter interested in what Stiles wanted.

"Well..." Stiles said slowly. "I guess it would depend on if anyone asked me."

Peter seemed to sort of straighten up, an intense look on his face. "My dearest nephew didn't ask you to join his pack?"

"No?" Stiles said with a frown.

Peter was still looking at Stiles intently and said "Stiles I would very much like for you to join my pack."

Stiles blinked at him.

Sure Peter had helped him when he asked, hadn't gotten into Stiles' space when he asked him not to and Stiles _did_ want to make sure Peter didn't go on another murder spree but it was one thing to decide it in his own something completely different having Peter ask him to join his pack.

"I still don't want to be a werewolf." He said in a rush.

Peter cocked his head to the side, listening. He looked even more interested. "You're not lying this time."

That was good to know. Stiles hadn't really thought about being a werewolf for a while and after the whole kanima bullshit he'd realized that if he was bitten he'd more than likely end up as something else.

"That wouldn't be a problem?" Erica asked suspiciously.

Peter looked like he wanted to roll his eyes at her. "No it won't be a problem at all."

Stiles cleared his throat and waved his hand at the betas. "What about them?"

Peter shrugged. "A nice added bonus I suppose. But I have to admit that I wasn't really planning on having any betas." He paused and smiled at Stiles. "Other than you that is."

Stiles found that mildly creepy and a bit disconcerting. "I thought alphas needed at least three betas."

Peter raised his eyebrows judgmentally. "Did Derek tell you that?" He waved his hand like it didn't actually matter. "The more betas an alpha has the stronger an alpha is. But because I killed two alphas I took both of their sparks, and considering that the alpha pack was well known for being more power than they should be, their sparks are more than enough to keep me sane, even if I had no betas at all."

That was practically a speech from Peter, Stiles was a little bit impressed over it.

Peter stood up and absently dusted his pants off. "If we're going to do this do it now."

Stiles hopped up and while he had no idea what was happening he was very curious.

Peter looked Stiles and the betas over for a few seconds, like he was working out a math problem in his head. Then he turned to Stiles and said, very carefully "Stiles, may I scent you?"

Stiles blinked, baffled. "What does that mean?"

Peter stepped slightly closer. "When Alphas take new betas into their packs they bite them, in order of where they are in the hierarchy. When they bring in new humans they scent mark them, usually with a hug or, sometimes an alpha will smear their blood on the human." Peter paused and little slightly amused. "I suspect you don't like either idea so I want to give you some of my clothes instead."

Stiles blinked. He had to admit he didn't want blood on him at all and the thought of getting a hug from anyone made him kind of nauseous. He nodded awkwardly. "Yeah okay. Clothes, I can do that." and then it hit him what Peter actually meant. "Wait- you think-"

Peter smirked at him and from behind him he heard Erica hiss "Stiles he said _we_ were the bonus!"

Peter cleared his throat and for a moment he actual looked a little hesitant. "Actually, I was wondering if I could do one thing..."

Stiles blinked at him. "Do what?"

Peter held his hand out. "May I?" he asked carefully.

Stiles stared at him in confusion. Peter smirked at him and understanding hit him. He rolled his eyes and shoved his hand into Peter's. Peter carefully raised Stiles' hand and very gently nuzzled against Stiles' wrist for a moment.

When he let go he looked supremely satisfied with himself.

"Yeah yeah yeah." Stiles said with a huff. "I'm sure you're very proud of yourself."

"Oh, quite." Peter said with a grin. "I knew I'd get you in the end."

Stiles rolled his eyes again but he could feel himself smiling. Honestly, all things considered, he had the strangest feeling that being in Peter's pack wasn't going to be as terrible as he thought it would be.

Peter was relatively sane, very protective, and respectful of Stiles' wishes. Plus Stiles wasn't going in alone or blind, he knew what he was going into and he thought that if Peter could keep up the respect everything might just work out.

**Author's Note:**

> this thing was hanging around in my drafts for like a year while i peaked out sentences at a time. i'm not very satisfied with the ending so i'm sure one day i'll add a second chapter or part or something. come hang out with me on [tumblr](https://graciebirdie.tumblr.com/) if you feel like it


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